Declan Kidney, Ireland's softly spoken coach, decided that Tuesday lunchtime in the rather pleasant surroundings, in a tea-and-scones sort of way, of the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel, nine miles south of the ­centre of Dublin, was neither the time nor the place to crank up the England game. He dropped his volume to a near whisper and delivered the same 15 names to start round three of the Six Nations who had begun round two against Italy in Rome.

There was a change on the bench, with Mick O'Driscoll coming in for Malcolm O'Kelly. In the long and rebellious history of Ireland, there have been more provocative moments. Even O'Kelly's natural disappointment was treated as a positive by the coach: "You never enjoy not picking a guy ... but this is what we want, competition for places."

Brian O'Driscoll, alongside Kidney, did well to stay awake and the captain even managed to squeeze out a couple of lines about looking ahead to this game without Ireland getting too far ahead of themselves by thinking ahead to anything else, like the grand slam that nobody, oops, was allowed to mention. Of course, they were only human and they knew it was out there, being discussed in life beyond the squad bubble. However, it would be addressed only at the right time and place, if ever, and certainly not on Tuesday lunchtime in Killiney.

Strike a light, the days are long when all is well in a camp. Kidney did venture that England, having improved immeasurably between their opening game against Italy and their away day in Cardiff, would be better again: "It's a new thing for England to have this amount of prep time together."

Having being respectful to his opponents, he was not going to become embroiled in the debate on refereeing, the issue having had a little paraffin spilt on it by the England attack coach Brian Smith's hints at bias against his charges by Jonathan Kaplan in the Wales game. Decibel Declan opted not to try to influence Craig Joubert; instead he went sotto voce into a breakdown of the penalty genus into sub-groups: the ones given away by "downright stupidity"; those that stemmed from a "tight call" and that might be considered "unlucky"; and the penalties that were yielded through pressure. As for England's eight yellow cards, "that's something England will be talking about."

If the coach had a special word, it was to pay tribute once again to the "utterly professional" and even more passionately private John Hayes, the tight-head prop about to win his 92nd cap and draw level with Malcolm O'Kelly, who, of course wouldn't have the chance to stay ahead, 'cos he was no longer on the bench. A ­conspiracy? Don't even think about it.

Ireland on this quiet seaside Tuesday were in no mood for anything but un­ruffled preparation. This was one of those days of built-in boredom, a torture of tedium before Saturday's release. Until then, ssshhh.